New Chevy Corvette Z06 May Spawn 'Z06X' Track-Only Special

The 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show this week is already the fastest production Corvette ever, faster than even the C6 ZR1 according to Chevy, but engineers are considering an even faster, stripped-out version designed strictly for track use.

“The idea was a non-street-legal, factory-built track car, and that is something that we are considering would be a great thing to apply to the new Corvette Z06,” Corvette product manager Harlan Charles has revealed to Car and Driver. “I mean that’s something we could see in the future.”

Chevy first toyed with the idea in 2010 when it rolled out the C6 Z06X concept at the SEMA show. Analogous to Dodge's own Viper ACR-X, the Z06X concept was essentially a Z06 stripped of its comfort features and fitted with racing paraphernalia such as an adjustable carbon fiber rear wing, roll cage, racing seat and safety harness, enhanced suspension with coil-over struts and camber plates, and much, much more.

Lessons learned from developing the similar Camaro Z/28 could be applied to the new Z06X. On the Camaro, engineers were able to reduce the weight by as much as 300 pounds. We wouldn’t expect this much weight to be reduced from the regular Z06 in its transformation to a Z06X but the modifications done to the Camaro Z/28 hint at what’s possible.

Such a car could give any potential new Viper ACR-X from the SRT camp some stiff competition. It would also provide track enthusiasts and budding racing drivers a more affordable option than the fully-fledged C7.R race car, which was also revealed this week in Detroit.